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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 17, 2015)
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 2015 NORTH COAST Seaside School District adopts budget By KATHERINE LACAZE EO Media Group SEASIDE — The Sea- side School District’s board of directors Tuesday ap- proved an approximate- ly $21 million budget and passed a resolution to help establish a local option tax. The general fund in- cludes an approximately 4.7 percent increase from this year’s budget. The general fund covers all operating costs. The overall budget also includes about $2.3 mil- lion in special revenue and $201,000 for capital proj- ects, such as a roofing proj- ect for Gearhart Elementa- ry School’s gym, two roof packs at Broadway Middle School, addressing Amer- icans with Disabilities Act compliance issues, engi- neering and construction of walls at Seaside Heights Elementary School and a restroom renovation at Sea- side High School. The district also is pur- suing a local option tax in November. The board voted unanimously on a resolu- tion for the district to call a measure election to renew a five-year local option tax to provide funds to finance certain district operations. In November 2010, vot- ers in the district approved a local option tax at the rate of $0.52 per $1,000 of as- sessed value for five years beginning July 1, 2011, and ending June 30, 2016. Ac- cording to the resolution, the board has determined there is a need to continue this level of funding for dis- trict operations at the same rate over the next five-year period following the expira- tion of the current five-year operating tax. The district is calling for a measure elec- tion to give local electors the ability to vote to renew the local option tax through June 30, 2021, at the current fixed rate. At the meeting, the board also approved new English Language Development and English Language Arts cur- riculum for the elementary schools and middle school for the 2015-16 school year. The Oregon Department of Education has a seven-year cycle for schools to introduce new curriculum at a rate of one subject per year; school districts have the option of asking for a one- or two-year delay. Last year, the Seaside School District asked for an extension on adopting new ELA and ELD material and will do the same for math curriculum this year. In other news: • The school board for- mally swore in members Patrick Nofield, Steve Phil- lips and Mark Truax, incum- bents who were re-elected to office in the May 19 Special District Election. The board voted for Steve Phillips to be chair and Mark Truax to be vice chair. • After a closed session, the board unanimously approved a motion to en- ter into an agreement with Duane Johnson Real Es- tate to negotiate the sale of district property on the school’s behalf. • The board also made a motion to make a count- er-offer of $20,000 to Wayne Poole, who, on be- half of the Marianne Poole Trust, made an offer of $18,250 to purchase 1,912 square feet of school dis- trict property adjacent to his parent’s former residence at 2015 North Holladay Drive. The purpose of the acqui- sition, according to a letter from Poole to the school district, is to “resolve the property boundary issues between my parent’s former residence and the adjoining school district property.” The district estimated the property to be worth closer to $22,000 — when con- sidered within the context of the whole lot — and de- cided to split the difference in its counter-offer, Super- intendent Doug Dougherty said. about transportation and land use, planning issues, he said. “The strategic plan deals with specific goals of the community,” he said. sampling residents because results can be compared with thousands of other communi- ties across the U.S.,” he said. “These results are then incor- porated into the discussion that occurs in the actual stra- tegic planning session.” Kucera said after the sur- vey results are delivered, he expected a weekend or retreat by council members in formu- lating goals. The survey and analysis would take about 16 weeks from survey preparation to fi- nal report, according to a Na- tional Citizen Survey timeline. City Council members said they were generally support- ive of the strategic plan pro- posal, but had questions about the styling of the question- naire, its cost and its useful- ness specifically for Cannon Beach. “My first reaction is this is huge, such a huge under- taking of time and money,” said Councilor George Vetter. “Can we scale this to Cannon Beach? “Each of us has lived here for a number of years,” Vetter added. “We have a lot of in- teraction with residents. Each of us brings a lot of informa- tion to the table. I don’t see as much value as this to a com- munity like Cannon Beach as you do in a community like Portland, where you have so few people representing so many people. Here we have pretty good (connection) with our community, all of us. That’s why I’m a little con- cerned about all the money we’re spending on this.” Mayor Sam Steidel said he thought the survey failed to offer questions pertinent to Cannon Beach. “They don’t ask residents of Can- non Beach about their ideas,” he said. “They don’t ask how they feel about very specific things. I’m not saying this is bad, it’s just not going to have meaning. To me, we’ve al- ready got most of that already in our goals, and now we’re going to all this expense.” Kucera said he anticipated it would take no more time or personnel in Cannon Beach 3A Warrenton passes budget, says goodbye to O’Brien for non-represented staff to bring them in line with other employee groups. The board also approved a memorandum to allow ex- ceptions to the district’s in- ter-district transfer caps put in place a few months ago. Superintendent Mark Jeffery said it was to allow students to be enrolled in a “closed” grade level if a sibling is en- rolled in an “open” grade. The board, meeting last week, also increased the sal- ary for the information tech- nology supervisor and the business manager. Jeffery announced that Athletic Director Ian O’Brien is leaving Warren- ton High School and taking the same position at Laker- idge High School in Lake Oswego. The Daily Astorian WARRENTON — The Wa r r e n t o n - H a m m o n d School Board has adopted a 2015-16 budget of $15 mil- lion. The district’s general op- erating fund will be $10.7 million, with $6 million for instruction, $2.9 million for support services and $1.5 million for contingencies. For staff, the school board passed memoran- dums of understanding to offer tuition prepayment for professional development, increase tuition reimburse- ment, increase incentives for employees to seek affordable health care options through a Health Savings Account, add back to previous furlough days and add salary steps Cannon Beach seeks new goal of ‘strategic budgeting’ By R.J. MARX The Daily Astorian CANNON BEACH — Cannon Beach will move forward with a strategic plan to solicit input from local residents and use that input to prepare a vision statement for the city. The cost would be approximately $10,000 for the survey and $10,000 for the consultant. “You’ve already got a good start with the compre- hensive plan,” City Manager Brant Kucera said. “The ul- timate goal is now strategic budgeting. Now my budget is completely tied to the strate- gic plan. That’s the ultimate, most effective way of using our limited resources.” At a City Council work session last week, Kucera told council members that all successful strategic planning processes include input from three stakeholder groups: cit- izens, council and staff. The strategic plan is “very differ- ent” from a comprehensive plan, which typically talks National survey, local audience According to Kucera, the National Citizen Survey is a nationally recognized survey instrument for finding out the people’s opinion of commu- nity services and community direction. The comprehensive plan does not address specif- ic goals or specific actions to accomplish the vision of the city. Kucera said the proposed strategic plan, prepared by the nonprofit National Citizen Survey under the auspices of the National Resource Center in Boulder, Colo., would be updated in about two years, while comprehensive plans are typically updated every 10 years. Comprehensive plans are legally mandated, but the strategic plan is not, he said. “The National Citizens Survey is the best means of Polling the community “The goal is to find out what the community thinks,” said Councilor Mike Bene- field in support of the survey. “This is a well-proven system. I can sit here and say what’s important, but with a survey we may find things we hav- en’t thought of.” “I’m looking for ideas,” Benefield said. “We want to know what people like and dislike and are comfortable with in the city. What works and what doesn’t work.” Councilor Wendy Higgins said she welcomed the feed- back that the survey would provide, which would provide a perspective that could come from new sources in the com- munity. Benefield said the council would have to implement the policy and assign the resourc- es. “You’re trying to pull out of the citizens what needs to be done and make this the Knappa School Board approves superintendent contract GO ONLINE The Daily Astorian KNAPPA — The Knap- pa School Board approved a contract through 2018 for new superintendent and Knappa High School Prin- cipal Terrence Smyth at its Monday meeting. Smyth, who is coming to Knappa from being prin- cipal at Springwater Trail High School in Gresham, will earn $105,000 in 2015- 16, increasing by $1,000 each of the next two years. He also gets $300 a month toward a tax-sheltered ac- count of his choice, along with up to $1,400 a month toward health coverage for he and his family. The board adopted a $6 million budget for 2015- Dear friends & family of W ayne Le d ford Wayne will be at the Pig ‘n’ Pancake in Astoria on June 20th between 2 and 3 p.m. All are invited to stop by for a visit with him. 16. It includes $2.6 million for instruction, $1.9 million for support services, $1.3 million in special revenue funds from sources like logging and $600,000 for Read more about Miles’ success story: Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A Contact: Steve Axtell • 360-430-0885 or John Anderson • 360-269-2500 don’t my Q: Why dentures fit anymore? 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LEINASSAR DMD, FAGD “ Miles is the perfect match. He is a great fit for our restaurant. ” debt service. The budget assumes the equivalent of 59.69 employees, the high- est employment in Knappa since the 2010-11 school year. kind of community people want to move to for, and live here for,” he said. “For us, it’s making priorities based on the information. You might be surprised. You might think you know exactly how ev- erybody feels. Some people might say, ‘I don’t want to be like Seaside.’ Others might say, ‘I love it, I like the carni- val atmosphere.’ That’s what these general surveys will help you do. I’m not look- ing for ideas, I’m looking for emotion, feel and perception of the town, what we’re do- ing, not doing.” Kucera said he sees “it as an opportunity to make sure that the goals of the commu- nity and the goals of council and staff are all lining to- gether and make sure we are (going) to use our resources effectively to make what we want to see happen.” Council members agreed to further discussion of the survey, including a review of costs and customization of the survey, at future council meet- ings. than in other communities he has prepared strategic plans for as city manager. BRIM’S Farm & Garden 34963 Hwy. 101 Business Astoria • 503 - 325-1562 For beautiful gardens & healthy animals www.brimsfarmngarden.com equine nutrition? Yes, we are a Certified Purina Feeds Expert dealer which is achieved by in-depth training on what our feeds do for equines with different jobs. 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